True name fraud and identify theft are growing problems for the credit industry. In many cases, true name fraud and identify theft involve the taking of a victim's identity to obtain credit of bank or retailer issued credit cards. With knowledge of a victim's name, address, and/or other information, an impersonator of the victim can apply for credit and credit cards in the victim's name. Often, the impersonator submits applications for such credit by mail, on-line, or at a retailer posing as the victim. The impersonator may provide an address or other information known about the victim as part of the application. In some cases, the impersonator may provide a new address, telephone number, etc. claiming to have recently moved. For applications provided by mail or on-line, the impersonator may provide false information or stolen identity information for social security number, address, etc.
As banks, retailers, and other credit providers or credit card issuers often wish to issue credit when possible, they may allow credit even if they are not completely sure the applicant is who he or she states to be. Furthermore, in some situations a processor of the application may have a limited amount of time to review the application. For example, a potential customer may apply for instant credit on-line or while at a retailer. If processing the credit application takes too long, the customer (even if the customer is not committing true name fraud) may terminate the application process. Thus, the customer or the retailer may require that the application be reviewed in a short or designated amount of time, thereby placing great pressure on the application review process. While banks, retailers and other credit providers or credit card issuers do not want to approve applications that indicate a potential true name fraud situation, the banks, retailers and other credit providers or credit card issuers also do not want to deny credit to a person providing a valid application or is, in fact, who he or she claims to be.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that overcame the drawbacks of the prior art. In particular, it would be desirable to provide methods, means, apparatus, and computer program code for determining true name fraud while processing a credit application. In addition, it would be desirable to provide methods, means, apparatus, and computer program code that allowed information useful in processing an application to be obtained and used efficiently.